A few weeks ago I was babysitting my nephew.

I say babysitting, he’s fourteen years old, nearly 6 foot tall and can grow a beard Moses himself would be proud of.

The conversation rambled through the usual teenager topics. Girls, football…well, actually that was pretty much it. I then asked him what he wanted to do with his life? I expected a shrug of the shoulders and the default answer adopted by most teenagers in response to this question… “dunno”. However, he went all squirmy, sighed and in an embarrassed tone said:

“Well, I want to be a professional golfer…but dad says that's not going to happen and that I should start working harder in school”

I didn’t really know what to say without stepping on his father’s toes, so I said nothing. The day after I was still thinking about his comment and I decided to send him a text (obviously, what else is a phone for). It went like this:

So often, our parents/ teachers/ coaches/ bosses tell us to keep our goals realistic and achievable – but why? Most of the goals we set are naturally achievable anyway, that’s just how we’ve been conditioned to think. So why not add a Dream goal into the mix. What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll still pick up some really good habits even if you never reach your goal.

Just remember, Dream goals are just like any other goal – i.e. completely useless if you’re not committed to working on your day to day habits.

Think how the world would look today if the following people decided their dream goal wasn’t realistic enough and gave up on it:

Steve Jobs – dreamt of putting a computer in the hands of everyday people:

‘have the courage to follow your heart and intuition’

John F Kennedy – dreamt of his country putting a man on the moon:

‘We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask "why not?"'

Albert Einstein – dreamt of making a difference to future generations through scientific discover:

'If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.'

Rory McIlroy – my fellow Ulsterman dreamt of becoming the number 1 golfer in the world:

‘I want to try to become the best golfer in the world.’

In The Habit Journal, we encourage you to find 12 goals to focus on this year…but if you look closely, there’s one final line marked with a star.

Use it to add your dream goal…or if you want to listen to those that say it's not going to happen, don’t fill it in.

And finally a video of a young man showing everyone the daily habits he decided to practice in order to reach his Dream Goal...whatever happened to him?